Photos of the cloud – which looks like a massive, ethereal, rainbow-filled hole splitting up a stormy sky – emerged just before 1pm on Monday after a listener called into radio station 3AW. Soon, Wonthaggi locals began posting images of the bizarre cloud formation, asking: "What's going on over Wonthaggi?"

Another user wanted to know if the world had reached its end: "Rapture's here, folks. Some weird rainbow/ cloud action going on in Wonthaggi right now," he said, tweeting another picture.